[120] From the edition of 1815. Monroe was United States Minister to France from May, 1794, until August, 1796, when he was recalled for lack of sympathy with the administration. He did not arrive in America until the following year. He was loudly hailed by the Republican forces, and a dinner was arranged for him in Philadelphia over which General Gates presided and at which Jefferson, the Vice President, Dayton, the Speaker, McKean, the Chief Justice, and many others conspicuous in the government were present. ODE[121] For July the Fourth, 1799 Once more, our annual debt to pay, We meet on this auspicious day That will, through every coming age, Columbia's patriot sons engage. From this fair day we date the birth, Of freedom's reign, restored to earth, And millions learn, too long depraved, How to be govern'd, not enslaved.[122] Thou source of every true delight Fair peace, extend thy sway, While to thy temple we invite All nations on this day.[123] O dire effects of tyrant power! How have ye darken'd every hour, And made those hours embitter'd flow That nature meant for joys below. With sceptred pride, and brow of awe Oppression gave the world her law, And man, who should such law disdain, Resign'd to her malignant reign. Here on our quiet native coast No more we dread the warring host That once alarm'd, when Britain rose, And made Columbia's sons her foes. Parent of every cruel art That stains the soul, that steels the heart, Fierce war, with all thy bleeding band, Molest no more this rising land. May thy loud din be changed for peace, All human woe and warfare cease, And nations sheath the sword again To find a long, pacific reign.[124] Soon may all tyrants disappear And man to man be less severe; The ties of love more firmly bind, Not fetters, that enchain mankind. But virtue must her strength maintain, Or short, too short, is freedom's reign, And, if her precepts we despise, Tyrants and kings again will rise.[125] No more an angry, plundering race, May man in every clime embrace, And we on this remoter shore, Exult in bloody wars no more. On this returning annual day May we to heaven our homage pay, Happy, that here the time's began That made mankind the friend of man!-- [121] From the edition of 1815. The title is manifestly wrong. The poem was first printed in a small pamphlet with the following title page: "Means | for the | Preservation | of | Public Liberty. | An | Oration | delivered in the New Dutch Church, | on the | Fourth of July, 1797. | Being the twenty-first | Anniversary of our Independence. | By G. J. Warner. | [_Ten lines from Freneau_] | New York: | Printed at the Argus Office, | for | Thomas Greenleaf and Naphtali Judah. | 1797." At the end of the pamphlet is the poem with the title: "Ode | (Composed for the Occasion, by P. Freneau.) | The Musick Performed | by the | Uranian Musical Society."